Treatment of ores bearing precious metals.



. and State of New York, have invented cerreducing agents, or tellurium, or both-no practice. whether reducing agents and tol- I up the. rciplisite strength in potass um iodid 7 No Drawing lotion-such. for example, as potassium I UNICSED STATES PATENT oreon. I I

1 JOHN, coLLI-Ns cLAncY, or NEW'YQRK, n. Y.

To all whom ii may concern: V

Be it known -that- I, Jon)? Conmxs Cmxcr, asuhjectof the "King of Great Britain, having declared my intention of becoming a citizen of the United States, at present residing at Sea York city, borough of Manhattan, int'ne county of New York tain new and useful Improvements in the Treatment of Ores Bearing Precious Metals, of which the following is a specification.

My inventionrelates to anovel method of treating auriferous ores,"which method is particularly described and pointed out in the following specification and claim.

I have discovered that gold may be advantageously recovered from ores containing the same,'whether such ores he rebellious or non-rebellious. by -the use of a solution containing a soluble iodid and a suitable substance 'apahle of yielding nascent ox v-. gen in said solution. In the case of rebellious ores-those containing, for example,

preliminary treatment, such as roasting, is required. 7 I r One way of carts-mg my invention into lurium he or he not present, is to treat the pulverized oressimultaneously with a soiodid-a soluble pcrsult'atc--such, for ex-- ample. as'the sodium of ammonium persulfate. The desired result is accomplished if the solution he suhstantiall acid. although it will take place if the solution ho neutral or alkaline or only slightly acid. The. strength of the solutionis. to some extent. dependentupon tln'ichamctcr ot the ore to he treated. and it must. therefore. he ascertained h rcliminar v tests: hut in practice with certahrores such as we have treated. we have i'ound the following proportions to answer well the purposes ot the process:

solution containing one pound potassium; iodid. three pounds sodium persuli'ate and one-half pound of lime or soda dissol ed in two thoustnd pounds of water in the WH- portion of two parts of the ahove named E solution to one part of ore. The same solution can he used again and again by keeping and sodium persult'atc. hut no further addition of mtassium iodid is necessary, except to compensate for mechanical losses, as the pcrsult'ale regenerates the iodin to begin, 1t5

TREATMENT or ones BEARING PRECIOUS MET A SQ sp ifi i or 1m mm, Patented Sept. 27, 1910.:

Application filed-March 13,1909. Serial No. 483,331. p

\mrkover again. letween'each operation it is desirahle to pass the liquor through zinc shavlngs 1n the ordinary way to exp tractthe values which it contains.

Another way of carrying my invention into practice, etl'ectingr the solution of the gold, whether reducing agents and telrzrium he or-be not present. is to treat the puher-J taneonsly'with a soluhie iodid ized j ore simu solutiousuch, for example. as potassium P iodidand ozone. or ozonized air. In pra-zr use with certain ores I have treated, I have found the fOilOWlHg proportions to answer :well the purposes of the process: a solution of one pound of potassium iodid and onehalf pound of'lime or soda, dissolved in two thousand pounds oi water in the'proportiou of two parts ofsaid solution to one part of ore. The amount ofozone tohc passed irto the solution .is to he determined by titration,

or otherwise. In practice I have found that a proportion equivalent to two hundred grams of ozone to two'thousand pounds of sonmon gave good results. although with same ores as little as fifteen grams of ozone to two. thousand pounds oi: solution have given excellent results. in this case also tho ozone regenerates the iodin to begin its work ovcr again. liencc. no furthe' addition .it'

nstassiumiodid is neeessarv except to com- 7 pens-ate for mechanical losses. t

it will he understood that. the amount of g ld carried h the gold-hearing ore is very smalL-aud that when suhjectcd' 't o tlnpo tasr-itlm iodiil, and Mimi. will he held in sulltllull in the form of auric iodid. and in \ltW of the very smalliamount of gold pres-.

cut the quantity of lUtllll drawn from the solvent Will he correspondlngly mall.

Another way of carrying! my invention imopractice is to suhstitutc in the above example nitrogen (mill-such.- for example,- as. nitrogen peroxidfor the ozone there used. llerc. again. the pcroxid of nitrogen rcgcm-rates theiodin as in the other exinplcs. I I

s l have said. it is not necessary in practi ing the above processes with rebellious ores-those containing. for example. redneingagents (sol-ids of iron. etc.) or tcllurium,

or hoth--to roast the orc. since the sultids do not act on the solution to llt'tzmnjtlsc it, and the tellurium is. dissolved simultam-onsly with the precious metal.

'hen the solution is to he reused. the oxidizing agents may he added thereto, if

necessary,- after each treatment when the solution is w iihdmwn from the ore, so as to place the'solu eion in proper condition for the next su uent treatment,

The cost of iodin in a commercial process would be ohibitivte were it not for the fact that in t1 processes above deseribed the iodin is repeatedly regenerated and does the same work ,over and over again. Its action may be likenedto that of a vehicle or carrier and hence it is not substantially consumed. e d

It will be understood that various modifications and changes in the described process may be-made without departing from the spiritof my im'entiou end Without exeeedthe scope of my cla1-m.'

Heving thus described inventioxuwlmt l I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is e 20 The piethod of treating pulverized ore containing geld, which consists in subjecting said ore to the action of aselution contain- 7 ing a soluble 'iodid and a substance capable 0f yieldi nascent oxygen in the presence 25 of said s0-ution.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to th is specifieation'in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN COLLINS CLANCY. I

I Witness v w -A. PAULING Oscsx Ascmm. 

